I'm always very grateful and humbled for the opportunity anywhere to open up the holy, beloved Word of God. And so I'm grateful that you're here for this as well. There's a lot about what I do that really I don't have the time to explain or to give much discussion about. I'm always happy to talk about my involvement in mission work around the world. Some of that mission work has brought along some suffering and some hardship and I'm happy to talk about that but my assignment here is to open up the Word of God and to chew on it a little bit with you So I wanted that's what I want to do.

I will say this of shared in an out-of-the-way community in Idaho the Lord has given me the pleasure to raise my family. My sons are all married. I now have five grandchildren. It is the mercy of God that they love the Lord. They serve the Lord.

We all still live in the same city together. We all still worship the Lord together in our church and serve alongside each other. And so I'm really grateful for my family. I give you greetings from my wife, who usually travels with me here to this conference, but we have a new grandchild that was born just a couple of about two months ago and oldest boy is away on some business and so she's she chose the grandchildren this time and I'm really grateful for that But I give you greetings from her. Her name's Renee.

I have had the privilege to literally be in many places around the world doing missionary gospel advancing Bible distribution in South America, in the Arabian Peninsula, in Europe, and in Haiti as well. Some of my friends in the Arabian Peninsula where we go where it's illegal to take the gospel, about 12 years ago I made a trip with some other churches in Idaho and ended up being arrested. And As soon as we were released, my friends in the Arabian Peninsula contacted me and said, I don't understand. You come to a country where the gospel is illegal and you have no problems. You go one time to Haiti and they arrest you and throw you in jail.

So well the good news is that my youngest son Silas was with me. So I'll just let that sit on you for just a moment. My name is Paul and so I've told my boys be very careful about how you name your children not that that's necessarily a prophetic mandate but for the joy of the Lord taking the gospel to the nations is one of our great joys one of our great privileges as the people of God. I come to you today from a real disturbing piece of Scripture, but yet at the same time a real hopeful piece of scripture. So I'm going to primarily be in Jeremiah, but prior to that, I want to include the 75th Psalm for some context for us of what we'll come to when we get to Jeremiah.

And so this is Psalm 75 verses 6, 7, and 8. For not from the east, nor from the west, nor from the desert comes exaltation. But God is the judge. He puts down one and exalts another. For the cup is in the hand of the Lord and the wine foams.

It is well mixed, he pours out of it of this." And then he concludes with this, "...Surely all the wicked of the earth must drain and drink down its dregs." That's a pretty interesting text. It has lots of complications in it, But it stands as an introduction to what Jeremiah is going to be asked of the Lord to do. While Jeremiah is in the homeland, he's in Jerusalem, He's writing letters to the exiles in Babylon, and the Lord instructs Jeremiah to do some things that have some complications around them. The first thing that God asks Jeremiah to do is to go and buy a waistband, this being the early portions of Jeremiah. He tells him to wear the waistband.

It's not disclosed how long he's instructed to wear the waistband, but he's not to wash it, but he's instructed to wear it. And then at some point down the road, the Lord instructs him to then remove that waistband and to go and bury it in the rocks. And then again, we don't really know how long the precision of the timeline of this is, but the Lord instructs Jeremiah to go back and dig up the waistband that he was instructed by God to bury. And when he gets there, he does so. He obeys the Lord.

He does what the Lord's instructed him to do. And Jeremiah describes this waistband now as a worthless garment now. And so God's doing some things to Jeremiah to paint this big, big picture of the relationship between God's people and how they've abandoned God. Isaiah does some similar things, writes some similar things. In Isaiah chapter 5, we have this beautiful song that Isaiah writes called the Song of the Vineyard.

And in it, it's beautiful. It starts out with all the things that God has done. God's provided the garden. He's provided the choice vine. He's provided the water.

He's provided a hedge of protection around it. He's provided a tower for a watchman to make sure nobody can come in and destroy the vineyard. And then as Isaiah, within these seven verses, a relatively short song, by the time the song is concluded, the Lord makes this. The story pivots. It changes from all the good that God has done and his expectation that good grapes will be produced in this vineyard and the Holy Spirit instructs Isaiah to pin this song, it concludes with this tragedy that instead of it producing the good grapes, it's produced only the worthless grapes.

And it's in such a condition that The Lord instructs Jeremiah that the imagery of what Isaiah 5 is about is that the vine owner is the Lord God, the choice vine is the people of God, and the fact that they are producing worthless grapes. Isaiah discloses that God turns the vineyard over. He allows the walls to collapse, the water is diverted away from it, thorns and thistle and weeds, briars grow up and choke out the vineyard. Of course Isaiah is prophesying long before Jeremiah comes along and Isaiah is before the nation goes into captivity. Isaiah is the one who prophesied that this will happen and it will come about like this.

Jeremiah is prophesying in the day, just prior to the captivity and through the captivity. And so When we come to the 25th chapter of Jeremiah, we will become familiar with the language that the nation of Israel would have already been familiar with. They would already have known of Isaiah's song. They would have already have known of the 75th chapter of Psalm, they would have known that there would be severity, that God would bring about great hardship upon the nations who one, abandon him and two, stand opposed to him. So that's the back story Jeremiah, but by the time we get to Jeremiah 25 if you have the Word of God there with you just be helpful for the connecting the dots as we journey through a block of the scripture.

In the 25th chapter beginning in the 12th verse the Word of God reads in this way and I'm reading from the New American Standard translation. It says, then it will be when, so here's Jeremiah saying, when 70 years are complete, when they are completed, God's saying, I will punish the king of Babylon and the nation, declares the Lord. And there, that would be the nation, that would be the king of Babylon in the nation, their iniquity in the land of the Chaldeans. And I will be an everlasting desolation. So this is what God's saying.

This is... So we keep this in mind, part of the great work of the people of God is to take the gospel to nations who hate God. And it's very complicated to do that and it's really risky to do that. And we're learning in Jeremiah 25 that these are even nations that God establishes to oppose him. The nations are established to oppose him for his glory.

There's the emphasis of the whole weekend that we've been here together for the glory of God. What is the chief end of man but to glorify God? Even those who hate God glorify God by doing what God has commanded them to do. That's complicated. It's not easy on the mind.

How is it fair? How is it right? How is it loving of God? But is the word of God the word of God or is it not? So we get this verse 12, we see that the Lord is going to establish himself against the King of Babylon and against that nation and All of the land of the Chaldeans are going to be established as an everlasting desolation.

It will be the grace of God that individuals in this nation will serve the Lord with gladness. But as for the nations, the nation itself, it will stand as an opposition. Verse 13, I will bring upon that land, so the judgment is upon the land. Very similar to what God does in Isaiah chapter 5, where he expected the grapes to produce good grapes, and yet they're only producing worthless grapes, God's judgment will be upon the land. As Isaiah concludes that song of the vineyard, you see that order that God commands the rain clouds to rain, no rain.

Now I shared with those who attended the Burning of the Souls conference on Thursday, or was that Wednesday? I'm kind of lost in my days, but Thursday. Where I'm from in Idaho is High Mountain Desert. So an average in southern Idaho receive about eight inches of rain in a 12-month period of time. We measure the rain by the hundredths of an inch.

So I was visiting with my wife Thursday night about the goodness of the conference and how my soul has already been refreshed and grateful for this and was sharing with her what I shared at the Burning in the Soul conference and I told everybody it never rains in Idaho and so then about an hour later she sent me up this picture of a torrential rainfall happening in my backyard or in my cities. I thought, wow, of all the whole year that it rains like that, I'm in North Carolina. I missed the rain. But This language, I don't know what it does for you, but it does something to me. Someone who doesn't live where there's its normal amounts of rainfall.

When it rains, it's really beautiful. It's so refreshing. But to see in the word of God that God would command the rain clouds to not rain on this land that represents a people who have abandoned God and produced worthless grapes. So it's a real, it's such a refreshing idea to think about rain, but back here to Jeremiah 25 verse 13, where he's announced that the devastation upon the land, so we'll bring upon the land all my words which I have pronounced against it, all that is written in this book which Jeremiah has prophesied against the nations." Now I would note there, this is worth just an observation as we as we progress through the text. First it's a singular use of the term nation concerning Babylon, the Chaldean, the land of the Chaldeans.

This nation, singular, by the time we get to the very next verse it's actually plural to the nations. This is prophesied against all the nations. So it includes the nation that God orders the rain clouds to rain no rain on, His own people. This includes every nation of all time. Now, the historic narrative as we journey through this, we'll see there are some real specific nations that are targeted and Jeremiah will be instructed to deal with and to address, but at least by the 13th verse here we see that this would give us of interest to consider this prophesied devastation should be fairly understood that it would be right for it to be a judgment against any nation that stands opposed to God.

Verse 14, for many nations, plural, and great kings, great rulers will make slaves of them. So we're talking about the nation of Israel. They're going to make slaves of God's people. These nations will do this. "'Even them I will recompense them according to their deeds and according to the work of their hands." So I can't labor long here because I'll run out of time quickly, but this is a beautiful thing that God will raise this kingdom of the Babylonians up to take God's people off into captivity and then God will judge them for their acts.

So I don't think that it's necessarily all that troubling to see how God holds mankind accountable for their own actions, and whenever He removes His hand of restraint from them, they will naturally do wicked and evil things. And so God raises them up to judge his people and then God judges them for taking his people off. This is the kindness of God. For thus, verse 15, for thus the Lord the God of Israel says to me, so this is to Jeremiah, take this cup, and keep in mind Psalm 75, take this cup of the wine of wrath from my hand and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it." So we'll know there will be some specific nations that Jeremiah is going to be instructed to to take this cup of the wine of God's wrath to. So that's the historic narrative is going to fit upon these specific nations And he'll even tell us who they are.

Verse 16, they will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them. So then Jeremiah, verse 17, Then I took the cup from the Lord's hand and made all the nations to whom the Lord sent me drink it, Jerusalem and the cities of Judah and its kings and its princes, to make them a ruin, a horror, a hissing and a curse as it is to this day. Just keep in mind that previously Jeremiah was instructed to take this waistband, go and bury it, and then go back and unbury it. And Jeremiah's description of the waistband is that it's ruined, it's wasted, it's of no use. This is the same description of the impact of the nations that God sends Jeremiah to, to drink from this cup of the wine of God's wrath.

And the result of that will be that they will be ruined. Jerusalem will be ruined, the nation of Israel will be ruined, the Babylonians will be ruined, there will be a horror, there will be a hissing, there will be a cursed as it is, Jeremiah is saying, as it is in the day in which I'm writing this. The evidence is right here before you. Then verse 19, 19 through 26, I'm going to spare you my butchering of pronunciations and so I'll leave it up to you to read the specific nations that God sends Jeremiah to to drink from the cup of the wine of God's wrath. But it begins with Pharaoh.

I mean he gives him a history lesson. The Egypt certainly of this and then he moves through these nations. By the time we get to verse 27, God instructs Jeremiah, "'You shall say to them, "'Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, "'Drink, be drunk, vomit, fall, "'and rise no more because of the sword "'which I will send among you. "'And it will be, if they refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, then you will say to them, Thus says the Lord of hosts, you shall surely drink. This is a, this Jeremiah is saying, hey you can drink willingly or you can drink by the by the hand of God.

But you will drink of the wine of God's wrath. Now, this is worth spending a lot of time in personal examination, study of, obviously it's the glorious work of Jesus, the Christ who drinks the cup of the wrath of God for you and me. There's the gospel that you will drink this, you will suffer from this, but What a kindness of God that he would send his son to drink the cup of wrath on our behalf. So there is a sweet gospel sound here. But certainly there's something to cause us to stop and make some examination of.

And that's what I want to do with the remainder of our time. So I want to make some observation of some of the things that Jeremiah is disclosing that I think are helpful. It is, it is strange though, isn't it, that we live in such a day as we do that hardly anybody thinks about the vile, unless of course it's in your home Rarely does our society think ill of the disaster of drunkenness We obviously live in a society That is it appears to be drunk actually. Not literally, but if you look close enough, it literally, it looks like it's drunk. It's behavior.

So the imagery of what Jeremiah brings forth is... So I'll take you back to the 27th verse. This is what Jeremiah is instructed to say, and he's instructed to go forth and say, this is what the Lord of hosts says, the God of Israel. First he says, drink this cup, this cup of wine of the wrath of God, and drink of it into such an amount that you will be drunk. We can see that there's a difference of taking a drink and enjoying the fruit of the vine and then the great warnings of scripture of avoiding drunkenness.

Why is that? What are the characteristics of drunkenness that you would think one should stay away from drunkenness? Well, he continues on with a couple of things. Are you going to vomit? Are you going to fall?

Are you going to rise? You'll rise no more. So I think for the sake of observation, again, When we think about what does it look to glorify God to the nations, first of realizing it's important that we realize when a nation is drunk on the wine of God's wrath. What does that kind of a nation look like? That will help us know, hey, here's a place we need to get the gospel to.

There are souls who are going to be devastated by the judgment of God upon the nation, and how important it is that we get the gospel to them. And we do this through the church. There's no other mechanism under all of heaven that God has instituted to take the gospel to the nations but the church. And so if anybody in society should be mindful of what nations look like when they're drunk on the wine of the wrath of God, it ought to be the church. So when we look at nations and we see the mark of the wine of God's wrath is upon them, then we know that's a nation we need to get the gospel to.

That's a nation we need to get churches in. That's a nation we need to establish a stronghold of hope of the gospel. So it's not my hope that you have much experience around drunkenness, but for the sake of observation I think it would be of interest to make note of at least some of the characteristics of drunkenness so that we can see, one, what Jeremiah is describing to us, and two, we can look around the nations of the world and ask the question, Does this nation need the gospel? Because of entertainment, we have become numb to drunkenness in our land. We laugh at it, we chuckle at it, we video it, we post it on social medias, but we've, the tragedy here is we've just grown numb to what drunkenness looks like and how it impacts the world.

So think about it with me, not humorously, but in all seriousness. The reality, it may be closer to some of you than others. Perhaps drunkenness has been part of a home you were raised in, or maybe even perhaps from time to time even in the home that you're currently in. Maybe it's a neighbor, loved one community where drunkenness is normal. It's no laughing matter at all.

So when we think about how Jeremiah is described, they're going to stagger, they're going to vomit, I mean there's nothing attractive about this. So what does a nation look like if the description of drunkenness, which is what Jeremiah is describing, is laid upon a nation. What would it look like? A nation that's drunk on the wine of God's wrath, it would be unsteady. It'd be unable to walk a straight line.

The nation wouldn't be able to do this. The nation wouldn't be able to, as Isaiah in chapter 6 or chapter 5, just after the parable of the vineyard, the song of the vineyard, Jeremiah will go into this discourse of eight dynamic woes upon the nation of Israel. Woe to you because you don't know what's right. You behave like a drunken sailor. And so a drunk nation would have this characteristic.

Unable to even be able to walk a straight line, would have the inability to think clearly. Again, my hope is that you have very little experience of drunkenness, but anyone who has, you'll know that a drunk person has, it's completely ridiculous that they cannot think straight. They may be able to make profound statements, but it's an inability to think clearly about the circumstance that they're in. Not even of recognition that they're even drunk. They have an incapacitated condition to have no ability to think clearly.

They have no... There's no line, no distinct line of reality. They think they can do things. For example, they think they can walk a straight line. And then when they do it, they completely, utterly show the ridiculousness of their condition.

They cannot walk a straight line. They think they can drive. They think they can go to work, they think they can parent their children, they think they can love their spouse. It's complete ridiculousness. A drunk person has no...

The inability to think clearly in the present reality is not present with them. To peel that further one more layer, they're incoherent. They're saying this while their actions are doing this. They're irrational in the circumstance of which they see themselves in. I can recall we do a lot of street ministry in my city.

The city I'm from, about 50, 000 people. So it's not a giant city, but we have a lot of transient population that comes through. So we do a lot of street evangelism. We do a lot of park ministry. And a lot of it, we come across this illustration frequently, Drunkenness.

Can I tell you? I'm stunned by how often many times the drunk people that we come across can quote more scripture than some people in many churches. But it's a complete disconnect. The reality, the irrational thinking of, they're saying this about God but yet their actions are showing they have no interest in the holy things of God and they have no interest in God governing their lives. It's incoherent, it's babbling, it's confusion, it's irrational.

You'll also notice this about a status of how you would recognize someone of drunkenness. We work with our county sheriff as well, and so we have the opportunity to give some care to domestic violence, circumstances that are, they're grave, They're serious. And a drunk has no idea of the devastation he's unleashing on his family. He'll abuse physically, verbally his otherwise beloved wife. He'll beat his children.

While he's being apprehended by the police, he's weeping with tears of sorrow, promising he'll never do it again. And not having any understanding of the kind of violence he's just this very moment unleashed. It's again peeling this further back it brings about it shows the unprovoked the abusive conduct of a violent drunk. They lie, they make false promises. How many times, if you've ever been in a circumstance like this, how many times have you heard this one say, I'll never do it again?

If you'll take me back, I'll never do that again. This is the repeating, incoherent, unconsistent, unsteady, ridiculous behavior of one who is in chains to drunkenness. Lying, making false promises. I'm not drunk. I didn't get drunk.

I don't go. I don't drink anymore. Completely lying. So I want you to think, my point here today is not to just identify what drunkenness looks like on a person. We want to make all of this and apply it over to a nation because that's what Jeremiah is doing.

So think about this. We'll kind of try to piece all this together in a moment. A drunk is wasteful with money. It begs for money and then it goes and wastes that money on more drink. Spending more on drunkenness, more on the disaster.

Drunks are braggarts and they boast about how much drink they can handle when they clearly can't handle it. But braggadocious boasting about what a good employee they are, bragging about what a good husband he is, bragging about what kind of a mom she is, braggadocious. No sense of modesty sits upon a drunk either. And my desire here is not to tell you anything you don't know about drunkenness if you've ever been around a drunk. But you'll know they have no sense of modesty.

They don't need a bathroom. They don't need a restroom to relieve themselves. They have no pay no attention to the clothes that they're wearing. A drunk woman, a drunk man, it's irrelevant. The immodesty of their appearance is apparent upon them.

There is Absolutely no sense of modesty. Drunkenness will also, in many occasions, bear the description of sluggishness, laziness, especially coming out of the state of drunkenness. Large amounts of sleeping, inattention to things that need to be cared for. It's not uncommon for drunkenness to lead to homelessness and death. It's not uncommon at all.

So as I've wanted to make the attention along the way here, I want to make the application here to Jeremiah 25. The description of drunkenness upon a nation. So I just pose a couple of questions. Are there any of these descriptions that you can stop and say, well, that looks like my country. That looks like my state that looks like my city.

It does doesn't it mean unstable unable to walk a straight line. Maybe not literally but but in practice, a nation is... Utter ridiculousness rules the day. I think that... I don't think we're out of bounds to say, here's some ways God helps the church recognize the condition of the nation that we live in and see the urgency of the need for the gospel the nation total utter ridiculousness I mean in my I'm 57 years old never in any of my days Did I ever think I would live in a nation that would think it's okay?

To permanently main children who are confused about who they are because the nation has left them in such a state. The total ridiculousness, foolishness has captured the heart of the nation, incoherent and irrational unprovoked abuse. This is this is the evidence can can we see it do we recognize I mean we've been actively engaged in the abolition of abortion in the state of Idaho by by all practical purposes one could look from your condition of the states around the country and look at the state of Idaho and say well apparently those guys up in Idaho have abolished abortion we have not abolished abortion We've not abolished abortion any more than any other state in the union. Now, yes, it is true it's very hard for a woman in Idaho to get an induced abortion. The old-fashioned way of murdering babies.

The new way is very easy and it appears very responsible, but it is the same bloodshed. It is utter ridiculousness. Right now the state of Idaho is in somewhat of a tangle with the state of Washington. The governor of the state of Washington has issued a letter to residents of the state of Idaho welcoming them to his state because he claims it's illegal for a woman to get an abortion in Idaho, but he wants them to know they can come to his state to get an abortion. Idaho has passed some laws that have the appearance of good directions, but may I just say it's utter ridiculousness to think that you pass a law that forbids the movement of children across state lines.

So minors, pregnant teenagers, The state of Idaho now has declared it an act of trafficking. Well, listen, I'm grateful that they're recognizing some things, but it's complete ridiculousness. They can go down to the pharmacy and murder their child in the state of Idaho and nobody is charged with anything. It's total chaos. But you see how incoherent the governors of the nations are?

They think, well, over there in Idaho, they can't murder their babies. But if you'll bring your pregnant women to our state, we'll murder them for you. That's total ridiculousness. I just read this morning that there's apparently over a hundred doctors in the state of Idaho that are planning to exit the state of Idaho because Idaho no longer allows the mutilation of children at hospitals. I'm thinking our hospitals in Idaho have been telling us for decades that they don't do these kinds of surgeries And now they're telling us they're going to leave because they can't.

They're they're they're so they're drunk on the wine of the wrath of God. And the only resolve here is the gospel. The only hope here is a church that will rise up and declare the gospel to the nation, to the state, to the governor, to the legislators, to the council, to the mayor. They may not, They may choose to stay in their state of drunken bliss, but oh, that the church would rise up because she recognizes the day is serious, that the judgment of God has visited the land. He's commanded the rain clouds to rain no rain." And the ridiculousness is they'll step out on a rainy day and say, look, it's raining, but they don't know that the reign of the righteousness of God is not reaching the land, the souls of men.

Salvation has not come to the land. So there is hope though, isn't there? Let's be honest. I don't think anyone here knows, would say anything otherwise. We're in a dark day, aren't we?

The nations of the world are in a dark day. But The chief end of man is to glorify God, even in dark days. And maybe even because it is a dark day, we should glorify God and enjoy Him forever. The problem that we must come to conclusion in, so we must admit there really is a problem. We have to stop ignoring, we have to stop, I'm not saying you have to, you can never sing the song God Bless America Again.

But can I just say, maybe we should stop singing? Asking God to bless a land that is drunk on the wine of God's wrath. We can ask God that we come and restore glory to His name again. We should do that. It's not like you stepped into an AA meeting this morning.

The first thing that we need to do is admit there's a problem. But we do, don't we? There's a serious problem. We're in a dark day. The Bible gives us clarity in what we must do when we see that the nation is drunk.

We must repent and root out the pride and the stubbornness. We must return to God. Don't miss this, dear friends. We have a very short moment here this morning. It would be a great joy to pray for you as you return to your homes, as you return to your church, as you return to your states, that you too would go back with a renewed hope to display the glory of God.

What do we do? What must be done? I think the hymn writer of old helps us here. You pen these words, oh soul, are you weary and troubled? There's no light in the darkness, you see.

There's light for a look at the Savior, and life more abundant and free. What do nations who are drunk on the wine of God's wrath do? If they want to be revisited by the grace of God and the mercy of God, Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face and the things of this earth they will grow strangely dim. How do they grow strangely dim?

The hymn writer reminds us they grow dim by the light of his glory and his grace. May we go forth from here to display the glory of God, for the glory of God, and for the happiness of the people. You know, in our cities, in our in our counties, our states, our nation, it really is a blessing from God That there will be churches that will gather this coming Lord's Day and they will sing the glories of God. They will be drunk on the wine of God's wrath, no doubt. But may the reign of the righteousness of God reign in our cities again.

May it fall on the nation again. Isaiah, back to Isaiah for conclusion. Where Isaiah early prophesies that God will command the rain clouds to rain no rain. As the close of Isaiah comes about, Isaiah will tell us that God will command the rain to rain again. And he'll make it very clear he's not talking about raindrops.

He's talking about the righteousness of God will rain on the land again and he tells us salvation will spring forth and when salvation springs forth righteousness will govern the land again. Oh may the glory of God come in our day. Heavenly Father, we thank you for these moments this morning. We thank you for the helpful proclamations that we've been under all week long and in this day to still come. Lord, we pray for our nation.

We pray for the nations of the world. Lord, may you fit your church with gospel shoes to go to the nations and to declare to them to turn their eyes upon you yet again. For your glory we ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.